Chesterfield are the best side that Justin Edinburgh’s Leyton Orient have come up against this season.

Martin Allen says that was the view Edinburgh expressed in their post-game chat on Saturday evening, following Orient’s 1-0 win at the Proact.

And he’s not the only manager to say it, according to Allen.

“We did play well, I can’t deny,” said Allen, after a fifth straight defeat by a single goal.

“Some players were below their best but most of that performance, I sat down with Justin Edinburgh and he said you’re the best team we’ve played.

“Quite a few managers have said that to me in the privacy of my office.”

Since the defeat, Allen has watched the game back twice and then addressed it with his squad.

It wasn’t, he says, a pleasant meeting for the players, who didn’t impress him with their defensive display in the final stages of the defeat.

“We had an early start this morning.

“The staff, we all watched the game at home yesterday morning and came in today with our notes and watched it again this morning at 7am.

“We had good time to prepare ourselves for when the players came in and sat down and had a nice, quiet chat with the players, well it wasn’t quiet and it wasn’t a nice chat, about the bits we could have done better.

“We had more than enough chances to have won that game, we played very, very well. The last 18 minutes we were poor.

“Our marking on the long free-kick into our box on the halfway line was shocking and if we hadn’t practiced that and done that type of defending in training, then you’d have to hold your hands up as a coach and say it’s down to me.